Freakin' Media!

Every once in a while I read something that just torks me off. In Sunday's (10/17/2004) Sacramento Bee, there was a syndicated article in the Ticket section about Hillary Duff, headlined "Tepid reviews won't push Hillary Duff to change ways". The article discussed Hillary's rise from Disney channel rag-a-muffin to a 17-year old young lady who's becoming a bit of a star in her own right.

Now, I have daughters 13, 16, and 18 years old, so the Lindsey Lohan's and Hillary Duff's of the world are not foreign to me. I see some of their movies, and hear some of their music, in the course of daily life with my daughters. So I read this article about Hillary Duff, and was fairly pleased with it, until I got to the very end, and I read a quote from Rolling Stone deputy editor Joe Levy, where he said,

"If she (Hillary Duff) was reflecting a true 17-year-old, she'd be all raging hormones, conflict with authority and testing every limit that can be found; she would be making the girl version of 'Rebel Without the Cause,'" said Joe Levy, deputy managing editor of Rolling Stone. "But she is stuck in a parent's fantasy of what it is like to be 17, and that's a fantasy that is appropriate for 12- and 14-year-olds." (italics mine)

WTF?

So it's a parent's fantasy to have a 17-year-old that is a decent kid? If a 17-year-old girl isn't "all raging hormones" and "testing every limit that can be found", they're not a "true" 17-year-old? Where does someone like Joe Levy get his view on life?!?

It's no wonder that American culture is so screwed up, with mixed messages we send our kids. We tell our children, "behave, be good, get good grades, work hard", and yet, if they do all that, people at very influential media outlets like Rolling Stone Magazine tell our kids, you're not real! You're not being true to yourself! You're not being cool, and you're fooling yourself if you think you are normal!

Jeez, I just wanna strangle someone when I read stuff like this. I'm sure its the dad in me that gets upset, but dang! I think we should all be just a little worried when a young lady, such as a Hillary Duff, or whoever comes along next, has some success without having all the accompanying drama and issues that is normal among the Hollywood and Media elite, and then are lampooned for not be "real", "true", or serious people.

I really have no patience for Hollywood people.